Trailer watch: The Spy Behind Home Plate

Directed by Aviva Kempner (The Life And Times Of Hank Greenberg), The Spy Behind Home Plate tells the story of major league catcher, and future spy, Moe Berg.

The rich storied history of America's great pastime is also home to some of the best stories put on film. Countless documentaries have told stories of amazing comebacks, megalomaniac owners, historic ballparks, and amazing human stories the world over. Now there's one about the baseball player who became a spy.

Directed by Aviva Kempner (The Life And Times Of Hank Greenberg), The Spy Behind Home Plate tells the story of major league catcher Moe Berg. Through a career that took him behind the plate for the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Washington Senators and the Boston Red Sox, it was what Berg did after his playing career that makes his story memorable.

Berg would go on to join the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS), spying in Europe for the United States where he became a paramilitary operations officer in the part of the OSS that is now called the CIA Special Activities Division. His missions included parachuting into occupied Yugoslavia, as well as missions where he had to "kidnap Italian rocket and missile specialists in Italy and bring them to the U.S". Life post-baseball sounded a little more exciting for Moe Berg than when he was catching fastballs on a Sunday afternoon.

Thankfully he was a better spy than he was a ball player and if you're wondering if there was ever a movie made of Berg's life, then rest easy. There is, and it starred Paul Rudd as Moe Berg.

Kempner's documentary, The Spy Behind Home Plate, is opening in the United States on May 24th. Check out the trailer above.